Finally, Goa’s Coastal Zone Management Plan 2011 has been approved by the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). The State government must be complimented for constantly pursuing the matter, ironing out issues and negotiating through all odds it faced during the making of the plan. In the same vein, the role of people of coastal Goa, NGOs and activists who took up critical issues, raised questions and sought resolution has to commended.
However, the one question that still hovers is whether we are truly done with CZMP 2011. Not yet. The CZMP is not a closed chapter for Goa. While the MoEF&CC has gone ahead and notified the plans with maps in the scale of 1:25,000, the Goa government has a task cut out to notify local maps of the 1:4,000 scale separately. The exclusions, especially the 46 lakh sqmts of sand dunes across the 105-km coastline that were omitted as per the GCZMA survey based on ground truthing, have to be reflected in the maps, and the onus is now on the State government to do the detailing in local plans.
Ironically, while the physical copy of the approved CZMP 2011 is awaited, it is learnt that the State government has already begun the process of drawing up the new coastal plan based on the notification issued by MoEF&CC issued in 2019. The hurry is intriguing when a crucial part of the 2011 plan is still incomplete. Moreover, taking up the new plan without adequately addressing the anomalies of the earlier project would once again deny Goa of its famed dunes.
Sand dunes have been a crucial component of Goa’s coastline, and it is evident that a section of the political class is averse to getting the omission back on the maps because that demarcation would create hurdles against construction and development. In this context, the government was expected to prioritize the 1:4,000 scale plan instead of showing an unnecessary urgency of a new plan.
We only hope that lessons have been learnt from the public uproar, agitations and intervention from the National Green Tribunal in the run-up to the 2011 plan. By now, there should have been absolute clarity on what the people are defending. The government must ensure that the 2019 plan exercise is seamless and people-inclusive. Critical areas need a more extensive public discourse and intervention of experts, especially in areas that stand detrimental to Goa’s interest. For example, reducing the no-development zone along rivers to 50 metres from 100 metres in the 2011 notification can spell disaster for a small State like Goa, whose landscape is distinctly different from other coastal States.
Coastal plans are crucial to Goa and its people and involve a lot of village sentiment. But, unfortunately, past public hearings have exposed the divide. Let there be no repeat of what Goa witnessed. It’s time the government clears the air and immediately settles the issue of sand dunes.
